Only 6730 More Votes Could Have Got BJP a Clear Majority in Karnataka

Even though the Congress got 6,38,621 (1.8%) more votes than the the BJP, the Grand Old Party would have needed a minimum of 1,25,608 votes to switch over to its side for the party to increase its tally from 78 to 113.

New Delhi: It was a hard-fought election in Karnataka and the battle is still on. While the BJP emerged as the single largest party, it is still nine short of the majority mark of 113 in the 224-member Assembly.

A closer look at the election results reveals that a mere 6,730 votes stood between the BJP and a clear majority in the Karnataka Vidhan Soudha.

The nine seats where the BJP lost with the narrowest margins also happen to be all against the Congress. This means that if some of the Congress votes had gone the BJP's way they could have theoretically upped their total to the magic number of 113.

The nine seats are Maski, Hirekerur, Kundgol, Yellapur, Badami, Gadag, Sringeri, Athani and Bellary Rural. The BJP lost these nine seats by a very narrow margin of less than 1.5% of the total votes polled. A quick calculation shows that the total minimum number of votes that could have tilted the scales in the BJP's favour in those nine seats is only 6,730 (see calculation below).

A

B

C

D

(A-D)

(B+D)

INC Votes

BJP Votes

Margin

Vote Switch

INC (Revised)

BJP (Revised)

Maski

60387

60174

213

107

60280

60281

Hirekerur

72461

71906

555

278

72183

72184

Kundgol

64871

64237

634

318

64553

64555

Yellapur

66290

64807

1483

742

65548

65549

Badami

67599

65903

1696

849

66750

66752

Gadag

77699

75831

1868

935

76764

76766

Sringeri

62780

60791

1989

995

61785

61786

Athani

82094

79763

2331

1166

80928

80929

Bellary Rural

79186

76507

2679

1340

77846

77847

TOTAL of vote switch from Congress to BJP

6730

Even though the Congress got 6,38,621 (1.8%) more votes than the the BJP, the Grand Old Party would have needed a minimum of 1,25,608 votes to switch over to its side for the party to increase its tally from 78 to 113.